If you're a fan of netbooks, you'll have one less brand to choose from in the United States moving forward. Liliputing reports that Toshiba has announced it will not be bringing its new netbooks to the United States. The move is no surprise as sales of netbooks in the United States have plummeted in the face of competition from tablets such as the iPad.

Toshiba unveiled its first netbook earlier in the year, the NB510, which features an Intel Atom N2600 Cedar Trail processor. Liliputing reports that a Toshiba executive has confirmed that Toshiba America will instead be focusing on the ultrabook. Intel is pushing ultrabooks hard in the U.S. rather than netbooks to lure in consumers and business users looking for portable notebooks with more power than a tablet.

The ultrabooks carry much higher retail price the netbook with most ultrabook models going for around $800 or more. Comparatively, the typical netbook is currently selling for about $300.

Toshiba isn't alone and vacating the netbook market in the United States. Dell and Lenovo are both officially out of the U.S. market while Samsung and Sony are still "technically" sticking with the segment. However, neither company has offered a new netbook in the US this year.

Other major computer makers -- including Acer, Asus, and HP -- do still offer their netbooks in the U.S. You can bet these companies would rather sell ultrabooks thanks to higher retail prices and a bigger chance for profit. Low profit is one of the reasons many computer makers weren't happy with the netbook market. Many computer makers went so far as to accuse cheap netbooks cannibalizing notebook sales.

Toshiba is still pushing hard in the tablet market and recently unveiled three new tablet offerings.

The original netbook was a low-end, low-cost device which ran Linux, offered just a few "essential" apps like a browser, email, and media player. They were quick, nearly instant-on, had only a few gigabytes of storage, and could run 8-14 hours on a charge. They were so cheap many of them broke the $200 mark, and they were frequently given away as promotions (my bank was giving them away for opening an account with them, in lieu of a toaster). They sold in the millions. The market liked them.

The netbooks we have now are cut-down Windows boxes which take several minutes to boot, run a crippled version of Windows, and are basically underpowered laptops with a small screen. You're lucky to find one for $250, I've only seen refurbs for less than $200. About $300-$350 is more typical. Basically only slightly cheaper than a laptop.

The market didn't declare they didn't like the netbook form factor. Microsoft and Intel successfully killed it off.

You are describing two different product types. A low power Linux machine is basically a low end media device, as even if a user could get programs for it they wouldn't know how to use them. A low power Windows machine is a limited use computer.

Microsoft and Intel did not kill off the netbook form factor, the form factor was unintelligent. Either you are getting a Linux device with fewer features then your phone, or you are getting a Windows device which is too small for the average person to use. With Windows 8, touch screens, and tablet keyboards (either Bluetooth or docks) the traditional netbook market has been replaced with a more feature complete and versatile system.

If you want to blame anyone for killing the netbook, blame Apple, they are the ones who made smart phones and tablets popular.

the Linux-based netbooks never sold that well. That's the funny thing about the free market - if a product doesn't sell well, then they stop selling it. I personally never saw anyone outside of college students ever buying a Unix netbook.

quote: That's the funny thing about the free market - if a product doesn't sell well, then they stop selling it.

Not in this case. Asus pioneered the Netbook market with their Linux netbook. Then about a year later, after "talks" with Microsoft, they announced they were dropping Linux in favor of a cut down version of Windows. It's not hard to guess what happened at those "talks". That's about when Netbook growth began to taper out.

Then a couple years later Apple introduced a tablet which let you do simple things like email, browse the web, play back media, and wasn't based on Windows. Basically everything the early netbooks did. And it sold like hotcakes despite the higher price.

I hated netbooks. I mostly dislike tablets. I get the impression you and the other respondent are like me. But we have to get through our heads that most people are not like us. They like small, they like portable, they like simple. They don't want a full-blown laptop. They want an appliance. That's why netbooks resonated so well with them and sold so well. That's why these people are eating up tablets even though they cost more than a low-end laptop.

You and I may disagree with their choice, but that's their choice. Trying to turn netbooks into miniature laptops to appeal to people like you and me is what precipitated their decline. Once the simplicity was lost at the behest of Microsoft and Intel, those people lost interest.

Then the iPad arrived and pretty much took over where netbooks left off. That's the funny thing about the market - if you try to manipulate it to eliminate a popular product, a new one will just come in and fill the gap you've created.